All posts tagged ‘Nickelodeon’

The heroes in a half shell are coming back to TV tomorrow, and managing to be both refreshingly new and respectful of the past at the same time. While Michael Bay works on butchering the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles legacy to serve his grandiose dreams, the folks at Nickelodeon have put together a terrific voice cast and excellent animation, and produced just a really good show that easily stands with the best TMNT of the past.

Premiering tomorrow, September 29, at 11:00am ET/PT on Nickelodeon — and continuing regularly on Saturdays in that time slot — the new TV show takes all of its cues from the old series and comic books, and adds a few new twists to give it a fresh take. For example, the great Rob Paulsen, who voiced Raphael in the original TV series — which ended 17 years ago — has returned to voice Donatello; conversely, Mae Whitman, who is voicing April O’Neil, hadn’t yet been born when the original series premiered.

I had the great pleasure of speaking with The Lord of the Rings star Sean Astin, who voices Raphael in the new series, and with Ciro Nieli, the series’ executive producer. Here’s an excerpt from my interview with Astin:

GeekDad: When did this project start getting off the ground?

Sean Astin: Well, we’ve been shooting for a year and a half. We’ve got the first season and most of the second season banked. And I came on board at the very, very last minute in the casting process – I mean, I was offered the job and we started within a week or two. So I’m sure that it was in development for a long, long time before that. But, from the actors’ perspective, this is strange — it like, it’s finally coming out! We finally get to see it. You know, we’ve seen a couple of episodes, and we just love them, but we’ve been kind of operating in the blind. You know, a couple of months go by and you see a few sketches or they’ll send an animatic of something. I suppose you could say that it’s been… how long has it been since the previous iteration came out? This idea in the comic book is somehow… going to live. It’s going to be reinterpreted. I mean, someone will be doing a musical of it, or performing it on the Moon or something. It’s just one of those things that is… I don’t want to say “evergreen,” because that’s got a kind of TV executive connotation to it, but it just doesn’t get old. I mean, kids are into it. A particular version of it will play itself out, but then having it reinterpreted, reinvented — people are so excited.

GD: It’s interesting how it keeps getting updated. I mean, the original Eighties series used more Eighties slang. But if kids nowadays watch that, they’re going
to say “Huh? What are they talking about?”

SA: Maybe they’ll start using those words again, and it’ll be retro-hip or something. The show is being made by die-hard fans. I mean, if you sit with Ciro, who’s the creative force in the show, he can just tell you every frame of every comic book or episode. So it’s being made by fans, for fans. And yet at the same time it’s not just a rehash — they’re totally faithful to a lot of the elements of the show, but then like with April O’Neil they made her a little younger so she’s kind of a contemporary of the turtles, and cool in there with them, as opposed to this woman who’s older that they kind of look up to. I mean, Donatello’s still infatuated with her, but there are adjustments there.

Nieli, whose interview I was unfortunately unable to record for transcription, told me about a geek hook for the series that even goes beyond the obvious comic book/superheroes/mutated reptiles angle: Donatello will be portrayed as a maker. In fact, Nieli told me, in one episode it turns out the turtles need a a laptop, but can’t afford one, so Donatello finds the right parts and makes them one. With a combined hook of comic book/superheroes/mutated reptiles/DIY, how could the show miss?

Image: Nickelodeon

I do have to admit there is one change they made to the show I’m really not wild about, nor I suspect will TMNT purists be: Michelangelo’s catchphrase is no longer “Cowabunga!” but is now “Booyakasha!” Yes, evidently Mikey must be able to get reruns of Da Ali G Show down in the sewers, because it’d be hard to believe the “word” was chosen without knowledge of Sacha Baron Cohen’s prior usage of it. Several other articles about the show say that producers have said that “Cowabunga!” will be used in the show at some point, but I can’t figure out why they would change something so basic — and it’s not as though “cowabunga” was really ’80s slang or anything (or that “booyakasha” is in common usage today).

That quibble aside, the new show is excellent, and well worth one hour of your time for the premiere, and a half-hour for every subsequent show. The voice talent is incredible, also including Jason Biggs as Leonardo and Greg Cipes as Michelangelo, and the CG animation rendering is, as you can see above and below, awesome. Fans should be aware that the premiere does contain the TMNTs and Splinter’s origin story, but it’s told as flashback during their annual Mutation Day celebration. Yes, it’s goofy and all in fun, but what else would you expect from a show about four anthropomorphized turtles, led by a rat who used to be human, fighting crime in New York City? Oh, and by the way, the toys are available pretty much everywhere, and some of them are pretty darned cool — I will try to get another article about the toys out in the next few days, so stay tuned.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will air on Nickelodeon on Saturdays at 11:00am ET/PT, beginning tomorrow, September 29. You can view the official trailer below (note the use of the excellent theme music from the ’90s show).

Now, Nickelodeon’s launched an interactive walk-through on their website, giving fans the chance to learn more about Republic City, the setting for The Legend of Korra!

As of now the first three (out of nine) areas have been unlocked, and if you navigate through them you’ll find some information about the world of Korra and Aang that hadn’t previously been revealed: biographies of some important figures in Republic City, why sky bison and flying lemurs are still around in Korra’s time, and some intriguing history of Aang’s time following the war. The still-locked areas suggest that eventually we’ll learn more about the sport of pro-bending, Toph’s daughter Lin, and maybe some things we haven’t even gotten hints of yet.

The walk-through is really just a way to disseminate information about the series, but it’s easy to use and offers an engaging glimpse at what we can look forward to as the series unfolds.

Fans of the television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, clear your calendars.

On April 14, Nickelodeon will premiere the new series The Legend of Korra. This sequel begins seventy years after the end of The Last Airbender, and stars Korra, the Avatar who follows Aang.

I became a fan of The Last Airbender along with my son, who loved the show and even dressed as Aang for Halloween one year. To this day I regret not discovering the series before the Lego sets were discontinued and became absurdly expensive. (What I wouldn’t give for some Legend of Korra Lego sets!)

Over the weekend of March 24-25, Korra Nation offered an advance online preview of the first two episodes. They were a promised reward from Nickelodeon to fans once Korra Nation topped “100,000 new likes, shares and tweets.”

Sadly the episodes were removed after the weekend, but I got the chance to watch them with my family, and we were all left with a lot of excitement over what we saw.

Below are some observations, concerns, and fan-squeeing about the first two episodes. I’ve tried to keep spoilers to a minimum, but there are some behind the cut. Read at your own risk!

If you remember Voltron from your childhood, or if you and/or your kids want to watch something exciting and funny, you should turn on the Voltron Force marathon on Nicktoons starting today at noon Eastern Time. It’s a clever show that both works as an excellent sequel to, and pokes fun at, the old Voltron series from several decades ago.

The series features the pilots of the lion Voltron (nobody really liked the vehicle version better, did they?) back again: Keith, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, and Princess Allura – only now they’re a bit older and mentoring several young cadets with the ultimate goal of having them take over the lions. The original series is (mostly implicitly) taken as backstory, with Lotor having been recently brought back from the dead and now king of Planet Doom. The cadets are, as you’d probably expect, not too inclined to follow the rules all the time, and each has his or her own specialties and/or strange possibly-psychic powers.

Now, if you remember the old Voltron, you’ll recall that the plot in each episode was essentially the same, with Planet Arus under attack by Lotor and/or his father King Zarkon, usually having something to do with Lotor wanting to marry Princess Allura. This would eventually include a Robeast, which the lions would take on in battle, but which would eventually force them to form Voltron to defeat it. Of course, the Blazing Sword would always take down a Robeast without much trouble.

You’ll be glad to know that Voltron Force is much, much less repetitive. Not only are there a wide assortment of plots, but they even send up the old show. For example, in one episode someone asks why they don’t just form Voltron first thing rather than wait until they get beat up, because they always end up having to do it anyway. In another episode, they fight an enemy that attacks them while they’re in the process of forming Voltron — preventing them from completing it — instead of politely waiting like every other enemy; someone points out that they’re lucky that’s never happened before, which you’ll have to admit is true. They’ve even made fun of the repetition of the same background art during chase scenes.

Flash back to one of the most beloved animated Nickelodeon series from the 1990s when Rocko’s Modern Life: Season One2-DVDset arrives in stores nationwide on June 21, 2011, from Shout! Factory. This DVD set features 26 wacky adventures of an Australian wallaby and his pals in 13 original episodes — two segments per episode. My geeklets have been watching these for a week now, and they still hold up!

Parenting Tip: Rocko and the gang are a great alternative for parents who would rather their kids not watch SpongeBob.

Instead of waiting to purchase your copy of Rocko’s Modern Life: Season One, why not try to get one for free right now? Our friends at Shout! Factory would like to give three copies away to a few lucky GeekDad readers. All you need do to enter is leave a comment below, and you’re in the random selection process. We’ll contact the winners on June 20, 2011 at 6pm CST, the day before it is released.

I’m not generally a fan of the traditional press release, but this one has my son and I excited. If you’re a fan of the original Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender, then this should pique your interest as well. I’ll summarize it here, and if you want to read all the details, the press release will be included after the break.

The first peek will be at Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) on May 7th with two short stories, including the unpublished Relics. Following that will be a 240 page comic with unpublished material as well as long out of print Nickelodeon comics. And finally, Dark Horse if creating an all-new Airbender series in digest style graphic novels. The new stories will follow Aang and his friends as they help rebuild the world.

Fans are invited to sign up for additional news at our official website: http://digital.darkhorse.com.

The Nickelodeon show “Ni Hao, Kai-lan” is currently in its second season. “Ni Hao, Kai-lan” is like a Chinese analog of “Dora the Explorer,” and both of my daughters love to watch it. I had the opportunity to interview 13-year-old Jade-Lianna Peters, who does the voice of Kai-lan. I let my older daughter ask the first question.

You can read the transcript of the interview below, or listen to it using the embedded players or by downloading the MP3s of part one and part two.

Ridley: Why do you speak English and Chinese?

Jade-Lianna Peters: Well, English is my first language, because I came here when I was only 8 months and my parents are American. So they taught me English and so I didn’t know much Chinese. But when I got the part of Kai-lan I started, and I practiced really hard to start knowing the language better, so that I could be Kai-lan and know Kai-lan’s part even better for knowing Chinese. So, I know more English than Chinese, but one day I hope I can speak fluent Mandarin.

Our friends at Nickelodeon were nice enough to let us know that new episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba! premiere this very week! Weekdays at 1:00 PM ET on Nick Jr. (formally Noggin) the YGG gang will welcome amazing new musical guests like The Roots, Lady Tigra, Neil Halstead and MGMT. Funnyman Andy Samberg also stops by for a very special Dancey Dance, which you can preview below.